By Evans Dakwa,News Editor
The Minister of Agriculture,Lands ,Rural Resettlement and Fisheries, Dr Anxious Jongwe Masuka descended on Beitbridge’s Royal Cooper farm where he implored livestock farmers to treat the venture as a business.
His visit to the 260 hectare thriving farm is part of his broader nationwide tour that has already taken him to all the Mashonaland provinces , Masvingo, Midlands , his mission being checking the state of crops and livestock in the country as it emerge from what has been dubbed the worst drought in 43 years.
“Gone are the days when livestock was just being kept as a sign of wealth, it is a business which must be treated as such and we need to inculcate that culture as farmers,” said Dr Masuka as he addressed stakeholders including farmers.
The Minister was impressed by the mixed farming being carried out at Royal Cooper especially the horticulture which is being efficiently done and produced with a ready market.
“Horticulture is a vibrant arm of Agriculture and the aim is to grow its contribution to the economy to about 1 billion by 2030 from the current levels of US$150 million, however horticulture is for the organized farmer, ” he said.
He also highlighted that he is pained to see farmers losing value of their produce because there is no viable market for what they would have grown.
“Horticulture pains me because I see women wasting production time by the road side trying to sell, most of the times the produce end up being sold for a song at the end of the day because there is no market. We need to reorganize ourselves in that regard, what you grow must be informed by the market, the market simply determines production, ” he urged.
So organised has been the work at Royal Cooper farm that most of their horticulture is produced with a ready market. Minister Masuka was shown 23 hectares of butternut plants with three hectares of those almost ready for the market. He was impressed by the fact that the three hectares are already sold out.
Besides the butternut plant the farm currently boast of a healthy maize and watermelon plants on its 40 hectare of arable land. There is a healthy flock of livestock comprising cattle and goats.